SPOILER ALERT: This weekly blog is for those who have been watching FlashForward. Don't read ahead if you haven't seen episode seven yet.

The Gift

In the dying throes of last week, the voiceover said that this was the episode you couldn't miss, because it would change everything – and for once, that turned out not to be hyperbole. In many ways, this episode has changed the possible direction of the show, and certainly has the possibility to extend the audience's engagement and patience with it. What did you think?

What happened?

The blue hand investigation of last week led, this week, to an underground movement of "Ghosts" – people who believe they're going to die anyway, so might as well live recklessly or choose the time to go for themselves. Lloyd Simcoe announced his decision to move back to San Francisco, and Aaron the sponsor met up with a soldier who had served with his daughter and apparently saw her die.

Alex Kingston [Amended: Kingston, of course, not Tracy-Ann Oberman, as previously, briefly, stated here, even though she does also have curly hair] turned up to be a token Brit (apart from all the secret Brits) and the MI6 agent that Agent Al Gough saw himself conversing with in his own FlashForward. And then everything turned interesting. We saw some more of Gough's FlashForward; something about him being responsible for another person's death. And to avoid this, and to prove that the future was not fixed, he sacrificed himself. Which was a bit of a surprise.

Does this change everything?

I think it does. The death of Al - lovely Al, of whom I had started to become quite fond - might be tragic, but it's at least the first attempt any of these fools have made to actively change the future.

You could see him getting more and more obsessed with the concept of taking control over the FlashForward in the episode with the gun, and the window-taping idea. But that he was the one that stepped forward - literally - to prove that everyone didn't have to dumbly accept the future as inevitable was one of the first truly gripping moments of the series so far. Perhaps they can now stop whining about possible future marital indiscretions and get on with the big stuff.

Still, the discovery of the Ghost clubs and the Dr Reynault phenomenon does lead to possible future conflict, particularly if they're going around killing people that don't necessarily need to die.

The question of Sponsor Aaron's vision of reuniting with his daughter Tracy turned out to be possible. The soldier said he had seen Tracy die: he didn't. He saw her looking lifeless, with her leg blown off. That's not the same thing. Head blown off? She'd be dead. Leg? Not so much. Her DNA was found in the buried remains? Sure, her extra leg got thrown in the coffin. Any fool can work out how it happened. Even me.

Flashes of inspiration and forward thinking

•"What you got?" said Gough, in a very agentlike voice, seeing Benford picking something up.

"It was on my board …" said the FBI agent wearing a POLICE T-shirt. I have to say, these boys aren't great at the old undercover thing.

• Given a death sentence and a world of free will and lack of punishing consequences, would people really turn to waterboarding each other for kicks? Discuss.

• How does one go about purchasing a consignment of bullets with "NOT TODAY" printed on them? Is it just something that a specialist printer offers to do at one of the meetings? Or are they a popular novelty item for party favours and I've just missed out?

• Also: what happened to Agent Seth MacFarlane?

In conclusion

For the time being, and at the cost of poor lovely Agent Al, I'm in. What about you?